Server Name Indication (SNI)

SNI is supported by RedShield. Please open a support ticket to request further details.

SNI is an important feature of SSL/TLS encryption for web applications, in which the browser is able to request a specific certificate from the server during the initial handshake.

In this way, a server can host multiple SSL/TLS certificates on a single IP address, and the browser will not display the error which would typically be seen if the wrong certificate is offered by the server. SNI helps with IPv4 address conservation.

Until recently, this approach had issues with older browsers and was therefore not always usable for websites which must serve the general public. Recently however, security concerns with SSL v3 have caused many site administrators to upgrade encryption settings in a way which breaks older browsers so as a side effect, SNI has become a solution with few drawbacks and adoption is growing rapidly.